Digiquest for Glory: And So the Story Begins....
by Time Lady
Summary: The prologue to the Digiquest for Glory adventure series. Four friends decide that they want to escape their mundane lives and become adventureres - or even heroes. Will they make the leap, or will they continue their mundane lives?


Digiquest for Glory: And so the journey begins. . . .  
  
By Time Lady  
  
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Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon or Quest for Glory. I'm just borrowing them for the story.  
  
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In the far off land of Digitania, a young man had a dream of becoming a hero. He went about this in the only way he knew how. By sending a form he found at the town's Adventurer's Guild. A large box arrived that morning. As soon as it arrived, he sent word to his three best friends. He heard a knock at the door of the hut he called home.  
  
"Daisuke, what is so important?" asked Yamato a little grumpily.  
  
"Don't worry about him," said Takeru, Yamato's brother. "He was up all night trying to compose a song on his lute. You woke him up."  
  
"Shut up," said Yamato with a playful cuff. Both boys knew that Yamato hoped one day to earn enough money by playing music to be able to travel, as their father had done. So far it had been less than successful.   
  
"Well, I have something that may get us on the road sooner than expected," said Daisuke. "Just as soon as Ken gets here. . . ." They heard a commotion outside. "That should be him now."   
  
Suddenly, another young man dove through a loose plank in the back wall of the hut, often referred to as "the back door." "I brought snacks," said Ken with a gleam in his eye as he held up a sack   
  
"Stolen from the bakery or pilfered from the fruit stand?" asked Yamato.  
  
"Snatched from the inn's kitchen," returned Ken, tossing each a hot meat pie. "You would think that Dame Mills would learn not to cool her pies on the window anymore."  
  
"She'll get on to you," said Takeru as he bit into a pie.  
  
"By the time she does, I plan to be long gone from this two-bit town," returned Ken.  
  
"With what I got today, we all can get out of here," said Daisuke, presenting his box.  
  
Yamato looked at the box, addressed from the Famous Adventurers' Correspondence School in Silmaria. "Oh come on, you're wasting good money on this crap?"  
  
"Where did you get the money for this anyway?" asked Ken as he began prying at the cover with his pocket knife.  
  
"I swept and dusted the guild hall for two months," admitted Daisuke. "Geoff was glad to have someone else do it. I also saved up enough for this." He pulled out what looked like a second-hand shortsword. "I've already been doing some shadow fighting. Geoff said if you're good at using a sword, you might be able to become a fighter."  
  
"Thank you for applying to the Famous Adventurers' Correspondence School," read Takeru. "Inside this box you will find whatever you need to become an adventurer. Start by choosing whether or not you are best suited to become a wizard, a thief, or a fighter by using the test set." He pulled out a small box labeled test set. Inside were a shortsword about the same quality as the one Daisuke had, a scroll and small glass globe, and a lockpick and locked book. Ken picked up the lockpick and book. "If you can pick the lock with a minimum of difficulty, you're probably suited to become a thief," continued Takeru. "Thieves can also become heroes. To some, he may be the weakest adventurer. To others, he might be the strongest, for if cunning enough, he can get away with murder."  
  
"Aw man," said Daisuke. Ken, while Takeru was reading, had already unlocked the book. "Lock it and give me a chance. With a shrug, Ken snapped the lock on the book, then tossed it and the lockpick to Daisuke. He fiddled with the lock for about 10 minutes, then tossed it to Takeru in frustration. Takeru tried it a couple of times before handing it to Yamato.  
  
Yamato shrugged, then handed it right back to Ken. "I don't think this is for me. What does it say about the globe?"  
  
"If thievery is not your way, perhaps you have that essence needed to become a mage," read Takeru. "Hold the globe in your hand. If it glows brightly, you definitely have the potential to become a wizard. If it glows faintly, you have a little talent, but probably not enough to really learn a wizard-type spell. Your talents may lie elsewhere. If it doesn't glow at all, forget about it. There is absolutely no way you will become a wizard."  
  
"Crud," said Daisuke, who had been holding the globe while Takeru spoke. The globe remained unchanged. He handed the globe to Yamato. The globe glowed faintly.  
  
"I guess I just don't have what it takes. You try," he said, passing the globe to Takeru. As soon as Takeru touched the globe, it began to glow brighter and brighter. "I guess you've got it," said Yamato as he shielded his eyes from the glow. Suddenly the globe flashed, then exploded. Amazingly, Takeru wasn't hurt.  
  
"What does it say about that?" asked Ken, coughing from the small amount of smoke.  
  
Takeru picked up the book. "It doesn't say," he said.  
  
"I guess the scroll is yours," said Yamato.  
  
"Don't you want to try it?" asked Takeru. "Maybe the globe was defective."  
  
"Nah," replied Yamato as he picked up the extra sword. "Does the book say anything else?"  
  
"When all else fails, and you still want to become a hero, there's always the fighter," read Takeru. "All a fighter needs to get started are basic combat skills, a shield, and a sword. Basic combat skills are easily picked up at your local adventurers' guild."  
  
"I guess that's me and you," said Daisuke to Yamato.  
  
"I don't know."  
  
"Ah come on. Give it a try. On guard!" Daisuke drew his sword and held pointed at Yamato. With a sigh, Yamato picked up the sword from the box.   
  
While Yamato and Daisuke sparred, Takeru picked up the scroll and looked at it. Magic. He never thought he'd have the talent. Glancing over, he saw Ken studying the book and fiddling with the lock and pick. Cautiously Takeru unrolled the scroll. Inside was Leyden's Latent Lectrical Discharge spell, better known as "zap." As he read through the scroll, the words, gestures, and symbols seemed to burn themselves in his mind. The scroll disintegrated, but Takeru could recall the spell as if he was still reading it. Suddenly, a sword flew past. "HEY WATCH IT!" he shouted to Yamato and Daisuke.   
  
Daisuke came over and picked up the sword. "Sorry, he caught me off guard."  
  
"Give me your sword for a second. I want to try something," said Takeru. I n a low voice he added "This should give my brother a bit of a shock."  
  
"Oh?" said Daisuke as he handed Takeru the sword. Takeru concentrated and recalled the spell. Energy flowed through his fingers to the cold steel. He then handed the sword back. "Okay, let's try this again," he said to Yamato.  
  
"Be my guest," said Yamato, who was starting to enjoy himself a bit. The sword felt natural in his hand, but something still drew him to the magic. Daisuke came at him. Yamato blocked. He swiped at Daisuke, who returned a block. Daisuke swung and barely touched Yamato with the sword.  
  
"HEY!" exclaimed Yamato. He rubbed his arm, then looked at Takeru and Ken, who were sitting on the floor laughing. "Did you do that?"  
  
"Yeah. It's called the zap spell," explained Takeru.   
  
"So what do you think Yamato?" asked Daisuke. "You think we can pull this off? That maybe we could become adventurers? Or even heroes?"  
  
"What have we got to lose?" said Ken. "Our families are gone. We're barely surviving in this town."  
  
"I'm barely making the payments on this place that will blow down if I sneeze wrong," said Daisuke. "If I'm going to be starving and sleeping on the ground, I'd rather be doing it somewhere other than here."  
  
Yamato thought carefully. He looked at his brother. "What do you think?"  
  
"Do you want to spend the rest of your life washing dishes or playing for tips at the inn?" asked Takeru. "I'm tired of the old biddies looking at me and shaking their heads, whispering about how awful it was to lose our parents in the fire."  
  
"I don't know . . . . Dad used to tell stories of how hard it was to live on the road. . . ."  
  
"Can it be any worse than it is now?"  
  
Yamato relented. "All right. But I don't think we should leave immediately."  
  
"Why not?" asked Daisuke.  
  
"We need supplies and money. And if you and I are going to be fighting, we're going to need shields. Each one of us should also have at least a leather jerkin for protection. Then there's training with Geoff at the guild. . . ."  
  
"You've made your point," said Daisuke. "All right then. Let's say we save every coin we earn for the next three months. We train our butts off. Then in three months, we are out of here."  
  
"Agreed," said Ken, as Takeru nodded. Yamato was still hesitant, but nodded as well.  
  
"ALL RIGHT!" exclaimed Daisuke. "We are on our way to becoming heroes!"  
  
the end - or is it the beginning?  
  
  
New Author's note: I'm going to wait a little bit on the next chapter of DQFG: So you want to be a hero. Why? I'd like to see who comes up in the new Digidestined. There are a couple of "castings" that I'm not happy with (particularly leaving the default game character as Elsa). So once I've seen the new DD (and I don't mean just reading about them), I'll make my final decisions. The cast is always evolving. I've already switched around two DD in particular parts, and just had another idea for a replacement, but it leaves another role unfilled. I'm sure QFG fans have some sort of idea of who's being cast as who, but I'd like to keep it all under wraps for now.  
  
Old Author's notes: This is the prologue to a series that I am beginning based on the series of 5 games called "Quest For Glory" by Sierra On Line. Essentially, QFG is an adventure RPG where the person starts out as a magic user, thief, or fighter. I decided it would be more interesting to start out with a group, rather than to just focus on one person. I will be doing the first game, "So You Want to Be a Hero" as a series. If response is good, I will continue on to "Trial By Fire," "Wages of War," "Shadows of Darkness," and "Dragon Fire." As I write each chapter, I will be replaying the games (I haven't played the first game in about 8 years - the first 3 games were made before games were out on CD. The 2nd one is still in EGA format [for those of you who don't know what that means, go find some of the Sierra games from the 80's and you'll know what I mean - no point and click interface here].) If response to this series isn't good, I will just finish writing the first game and stop.  
  
Over the whole series of games, all the digidestined and Digimon will appear. Don't worry if your favorites don't appear immediately. They may appear in one of the later series. For the characters, I will be using Japanese names. For the Digimon, I will be using both Japanese and English names, depending on my source. I will be using different sources for names and pictures of Digimon to cast the right parts. In some cases, I will have to make up my own Digimon. I will list made up Digimon at the end of the stories.  
  
Well, read, enjoy, and review.  
  
- Contest Announcement -  
  
Actually, this is an art contest. I can draw diddlysquat (well, a very weird looking cartoony cat, dog, and parrot, but that's a moot point here).   
  
I need some art to fill in that wonderful spot for a photograph on my profile. Therefore, if you have been inspired to draw something by one of my fics ("Angels Reborn," "Angels Acceptance," "Angels Aerie," "The White Gatomon," "A Digi-Tale," "The White Gatomon," "Digiquest for Glory," or "A Teacher's POV" series), send it to me by May 1. My favorites will be rotated in turn in the picture location of my profile, will appear on the Mystic Manor homepage (when it's updated), and I'll write the author into one of my upcoming stories (and I have about 4 I'm working on at the same time, plus a dozen other ideas are trying to force their way onto paper at this time.)   
  
I'm looking for high quality art that's been inspired by my writing. Color and black and white drawings welcome.  
  
Any questions, email me at sailrgal@swbell.net.   
  



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